Home entertainment systems increasingly include both Personal Computer and television functions (PC/TV functions) involving multiple source and multiple destination communication. Such a system may receive data from satellite or terrestrial sources comprising High Definition Television (HDTV) broadcasts, Microwave Multi-point Distribution System (MMDS) broadcasts and Digital Video Broadcasts (DVB). Such a system may also provide high speed Internet access through a broadcast link or a coaxial link (e.g. cable TV lines) using a cable modem or via a telephone line link using an ADSL or ISDN (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line or Integrated Services Digital Network) compatible modem, for example. A home entertainment system may also communicate with local devices using different communication networks. Such local devices include Digital Video Disk (DVD), CDROM, VHS, and Digital VHS (DVHS™) type players, PCs, set top boxes and many other types of devices.
It is desirable for home entertainment systems, supporting Internet compatible bi-directional communication using cable and other types of modems, to be able to seamlessly communicate with networked devices on different networks. For example, such a home entertainment system may communicate on Ethernet, Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HPNA) or Universal Serial Bus (USB) local networks. These requirements and associated problems are addressed by a system according to the present invention.